Hibs predicted XI as Motherwell visit Easter Road with guaranteed European football at stake for rival sides

There will be distractions aplenty, from Martin Boyle’s final Easter Road curtain call to the incessant buzzing of phones unlikely to be very far from the attention of most in the home crowd. Nobody knows quite what to expect, in terms of atmosphere, when Motherwell take on Hibs in Edinburgh tomorrow.

But David Gray and his team have a job to do. A prize to claim. Beat much-admired Motherwell and they’ll finish fourth in the Scottish Premiership, securing a guaranteed crack at the UEFA Conference League second qualifying round in late July.

Excluding the entirely unserious Intertoto Cup, Hibs haven’t secured European qualification in consecutive seasons in half a century. Back-to-back wins away to Falkirk and Rangers have given them the chance to make more history.

Gray is grateful to be in this position after starting the post-split run with successive defeats, the Hibs boss revealing: “Going into this split, as a group we sat down and looked at what points we felt we'd need to get to - or hoped to get - to give us the best chance to finish in fourth. If you look at where we thought we'd pick up points, where you don't pick up points, where you do, it doesn't matter where you get the points, it's all about getting them.

“We've managed to put ourselves in a position now, as you've just said, one win against Motherwell at home and we've caught that team in front of . who we’ve been chasing down for a long time. It's brilliant we've put ourselves in that position.

“We needed to rely on results to go our way at times. But going into the start of this week, we knew we needed three wins. That's what we resigned ourselves to and we've managed to deliver two of the three, with one big push to go.”

Here’s how we think Hibs will line up for a game that might get overlooked, even by some of those in attendance, but deserves to be treated as a serious contest with real stakes at play: